Make your pick: Seahawks vs. Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII

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Certainly they’d be the best team in Pete Carroll’s four years in Seattle. After an 11-5 season in 2012 and a run to the NFC division playoffs, the Hawks weren’t going to sneak up on anybody. With an offense led by exciting second-year quarterback Russell Wilson and physical running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch, and a defense headlined by the vaunted “Legion of Boom” secondary, Seattle seemed poised to make the next step in its ascension to the NFL’s elite.

Could they be the best Seahawks team of all time? Even a cursory glance at the roster seemed to confirm experts’ opinions that the team had some of the best talent in the league, and they looked to have the right kind of outlook for greatness, but in a hard-luck sports town like Seattle, it pays to hedge your bets. Certainly, some whispered “Super Bowl” under their breaths, but who can tell how many actually believed?

Then came the 4-0 start, including a blowout of the hated 49ers on national TV and a Richard Sherman-sparked miracle finish in Houston. The loss at Indy hurt, but a string of close victories over mostly unimpressive opponents through the middle part of the season left the 12th Man nervously excited at 8-1. In Atlanta, the site of last year’s heartbreaking playoff defeat, the Hawks used a 20-point second quarter to jump on the Falcons, then never let up until the final whistle. That was followed by another couple of blowout wins, including the 34-7 dismantling of a one-loss New Orleans team on Monday Night Football. A trip to San Francisco resulted in a hard-fought loss and a feeling of unfinished business, and though Seattle sleepwalked through its final couple of weeks, the team had proven worthy of the hype: NFC West champs at 13-3, with the No. 1 seed in the NFC and a target squarely on their backs.

(TIMOTHY CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

Could they live up to the expectations?

The Saints came back to town, but the Seahawks proved too much in the end, setting the stage for a rubber match with the Niners, a Super Bowl berth hanging in the balance. The contest was an instant classic, and when Sherman tipped Colin Kaepernick’s pass into the waiting arms of Malcolm Smith, the question was definitively answered: This Seahawks squad was, indeed, Super.

But can they make history?

Standing in their way is a legend living out a spectacular second act. Peyton Manning — who some believed would never play again just two short years ago — and his Broncos. A team diametrically opposed to the Seahawks in philosophy and temperament. In short, a perfect test for immortality.

Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVIII should be a matchup for the ages: Offense vs. defense, experience vs. youth, bravado vs. quiet confidence. If Wilson, Lynch, Sherman and the rest of the 2013 Hawks raise the Lombardi Trophy at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night, they will answer yet another question:

What does greatness look like?

Who will win: Seahawks or Broncos?

Pop open the champagne at halftime! Hawks run away with Super Bowl.

The long wait is over! Seahawks bring home Lombardi trophy in close, hard-fough victory.